EPR Rates

Methodology

Last verified · Next check · Method v1.12.0

Where the numbers come from

Every rate on this site is extracted from an official publication: the tariff PDF or rates page of the statutory producer responsibility organisation (PRO) for each country. We fetch only sources on a reviewed allowlist, with a declared tool user-agent — no scraping behind logins, forms or paywalls. If a source blocks automated access, we stop fetching that domain entirely rather than work around it.

How rows are verified

Each fetched document is stored as an immutable snapshot with a SHA-256 hash recorded at fetch time; every rate row links to its source URL and carries the snapshot hash plus an as‑of verification date. Rates are extracted by a human, then machine-checked (field completeness, unit and date validity) and screened for contradictions (conflicting sources, year-on-year jumps above 3×, unit mixing) before publication.

The last source re-check ran on : 143 of the 144 sources in the allowlist were fetched, 131 of them published no change to any figure, and 0 rates changed. An as‑of date moves forward only for rows whose source was fetched and whose figures were unchanged; rows whose source could not be reached, or whose figures moved, keep the date of their last real check.

Confidence labels

Units and normalisation

The original value and unit as published are never overwritten. Euro-per-kilogram tariffs published in centimes (France) are normalised by a factor of 100. We do not convert across currencies: UK fees stay in £ per tonne. Within a table, decimal places are fixed per column.

Update cycle and history

All sources are re-fetched weekly; changed documents are re-extracted and the site is rebuilt, so Last verified reflects real checks, not page regeneration. Historical rows are never rewritten — corrections are added as new rows under a bumped method version (1.12.0 at present). Published URLs and row anchors are permanent. If a row looks wrong, email hello@eprrates.com with the row and the source you are reading it against: we check it against the official document, reply either way, and where we are wrong or the source has changed, publish the correction as a new row under a bumped method version.

The rule library behind the registration pages

The pages that answer do you need to register are rendered from a separate library from the rate tables. It holds one record per country, and each record answers four questions: who counts as the producer, whether a volume threshold exists, what an online marketplace carries, and whether an authorised representative is required. Every one of those cells carries its own three-part provenance — the source URL, the date we opened that URL logged out, and an evidence tier — and the build refuses to load the file if any cell is missing one of the three. unknown is a value in that library, not an empty field: a country we could not verify says so on its page rather than quietly falling back to what neighbouring countries do.

Answers are graded on the same three tiers as the rates above, plus unknown, and the wording is chosen by the tier rather than by us. A cell whose evidence tier is unknown can never be phrased more strongly than an indication with a route to confirm it, and the page may say you may not need to register only where the library records a real exemption threshold backed by the authority's own wording. The build checks that in both directions: it stops if a page makes that claim without the evidence, and it stops if a page that is entitled to make it has dropped it. Where a country publishes two limits, the library records whether the connecting word describes the exemption or the liability, because the same and means opposite things in different countries; where that is not recorded, the page falls back to the reading that is safe in every direction.

Volume is not the only thing a threshold turns on, so the library also records what a threshold does not cover — packaging types that stay obligated from the first unit however small you are, packaging types exempted by their kind rather than by volume, and the bands that apply once you are over the line. Where we have not read those out of the official source, the page says the figure is what we hold and the exceptions attached to it may not be, instead of presenting a bare number as the whole rule.

The same library also records the fixed part of the cost — what registering with the authority or its register itself charges, and the lowest annual, membership or management figure published by the scheme whose rates we hold for that country — each of the two with its own source URL, the date we opened it logged out, and an evidence tier. A figure is recorded as zero only where an official page states in its own words that registration carries no charge; where we could not find a figure the page says it was not obtained rather than implying there is none; and where a country's schemes price by contract instead of by published tariff, the page says that too, instead of printing a number nobody published. What a compliance provider or an authorised representative charges is a commercial price that no official source publishes, so this library holds no figure for it at all.

What we deliberately don't do

No advice on what you owe (reference data only), no scraped personal data, no content farm — just the tables. Coverage: 4918 rate rows, 28 countries, household packaging, household textiles, batteries, waste electrical and electronic equipment, commercial and industrial packaging and packaging taxes.

How to cite

EPR Rates (2026). EPR Rates methodology. https://eprrates.com/methodology/ · Retrieved 2026-09-17. CC BY 4.0.
@misc{eprratesmethodology,
  title = {EPR Rates methodology},
  author = {{EPR Rates}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://eprrates.com/methodology/},
  note = {Retrieved 2026-09-17. CC BY 4.0}
}

Rate figures are extracted from the official publications listed under Sources; those source documents remain under their publishers' terms.

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